harry potter; 7 ficlets
Because I never got around to posting them from the ficathon :P
of puzzle pieces and flower petals
..........|harry potter; george/angelina; pg; strange how we fit each other.
She sees him after the battle, battered and broken and for a second she feels like she shouldn't say anything, shouldn't be the one to comfort him, when their entire history was a couple quidditch matches and maybe a dance or two at a ball in some other life.
But nonetheless Angelina leaves her Gryffindor girls (women) sobbing into the sleeves of Ravenclaw boys (men) and pads, slowly, slowly, over to George.
He's sitting alone, face in his hands because his cheeks are (probably) pink from tears and not their usual laughter. She picks a hole in her robes and imagines it to be the petals on a flower. She exhales as she watches the petals drop.
Standing maybe five feet (three feet) away, Angelina thumps the beat of a Muggle song onto her hip and accios some of that fabled Gryffindor courage people just began to realize existed in nearly every House.
Thu-u-ump-ump-ump-ump, thu-u-ump-ump-ump-ump, thu-u-u-u-u-ump, thu-u-u-u-u-u-ump...
She finishes her air, and walks the five feet (three feet) to George, delicately dropping beside him like the petals from her hallucinated flower.
"I had a twin, too," she says, and threads her finger in and out of the hole in her robes (in and out of the stem of the flower). "She was hit by a car when I was six. We don't speak of it much, but... I thought you should know."
He lifts his head up, and she takes his hand and squeezes before standing up to leave.
She left her flower behind.
the rest of her life
..........|harry potter; neville/luna; pg; in the aftermath of the war.
He found her, after all.
They didn't have much time to talk, so after he'd said those dawning words he vanished, and she had a new reason to fight.
When everything was over and he had been vanquished and Harry had won and life was beautiful again (even if it didn't appear like that) he kissed her, and she'd never felt better in her life.
After, though, she felt grave and embarrassed, that she was here smiling when so many were dead. She looked at the Weasleys and knew they'd never be the same without Fred; glanced across at Minerva and her heavy heart.
He took her hand, his other holding the Sword of Gryffindor, and together they sat on the steps, amongst the rubble of the building and the rubble of everyone's hearts.
"They were brave, you know. Everyone who died."
He looks down at her and kisses her forehead, pulling her head to rest on his chest. "More like everyone who fought. But it's over now, right? We've won. We lost some great men, but they'll never be gone, not really."
She sighs into him and knows he's right. A swelling feeling overtakes her, and all of a sudden she thinks she can fly, thinks she can create joy with her very being and conquer anything that forbids her to do so. She thinks she could spend the rest of her life here, with Neville, silently mourning the dead and triumphing in the living.
"I can't wait to get home," she says, and hopes (eventually) he'll ask if he can come, too.
three wishes
..........|harry potter; malfoy family; pg; oh i'm a guilty one / and know what i have done / yeah, i'm a troubled one / and i won't be forgiven.
lucius;
you watch them walk away hand-in-hand, thinking about how it could be a picture perfect portrait with you on the other side. you wish you had the heart to grab narcissa's hand, rub it with your thumb and tell her it's alright.
silently, you wonder if odysseus had it any better.
(you wonder if aeneas had it any better. you wonder why you can't be him, instead of yourself.)
heroes are overrated, you decide. books make them out to be great men whose flaws and failures only add to their successes. well you know damn straight that's not true in real life.
you think maybe, this life is some form of hell, and to get to heaven you must first win the war set out for you here.
if that's true, then one thing's for sure: you are never making it to see the pearly gates.
.
narcissa;
you watch them walk away, talking about something the dark lord (because that's what you call him now; not he-who-must-not-be-named, not voldemort) said earlier about a task he needs draco to fufill.
frankly, you've never been more scared in your life.
you wish you could go back in time, to the days where you made airplane noises to a boy with white-blonde hair, smiled a little more and still knew how to love. you wish you could go back to when lucius would whisper "you and me: forever" in your ear whenever he thought about it.
(you wish a lot of things, nowadays, but there aren't enough dandelions, eyelashes, or shooting stars in the world to make any of them come true. not even magic can change the course of time.
you think magic is useless, then. all of a sudden, you wish you weren't a wizard anymore, and add it to the list.)
.
draco;
you watch them walk away to somewhere behind closed doors in more ways than one. as soon as they arrived home the news was shared, voldemort vanquished! headlining all wizarding papers.
so harry did it, all right. he always knew he would.
something's missing, though: you wish you'd said something, after he saved your life. it might have been the first time, but you know you'll probably never get the chance to thank him.
you wish you had someone to share it with, this burden. it's not easy being the only child and having so much to carry.
maybe some day, when the scars tissue over and the pain subsides, you'll have a family of your own and make all the choices you wish your parents had made.
your mother and father emerge from the room and you notice she's been crying. lucius gives a curt nod and leaves, and as you hug your mum it's like you're eight years old again, swearing she's the most beautiful lady in the whole world.
you think (you know) she still is.
the fighter
..........|harry potter; minerva; pg; out of my control.
she never wanted any of this to happen.
when she and albus used to converse, he never said much, but he always made sure to say enough because he knew this day was coming. he kenw she'd be alone and broken, trying to piece everything together as well as she thought.
but she couldn't help it, help him. there was no way she could predict the dark lord or his actions and even though harry knew him better than anyone else did (knew him better than he did) he couldn't be the one to take charge.
she was going to end this thing. she might not be able to open at the close, but she sure can throw a punch.
dust is all that's left of us
..........|harry potter; the order of the phoenix; pg; prompt here.
i.
the dead. they haunt us.
everyday, we go about cleaning and (almost) smiling, picking up and (almost) drifting off.
but they'll never let us forget.
ii.
it's fall before we can feel again, before we can think again, before we can even hope to hope again.
grimmauld place isn't like it was before, dusty and abandoned after 11 at night when everyone either went to bed or had the sense to stay in their rooms.
now, we never sleep, because everytime we blink faces of those past flash like a camera about to overexpose.
we'll all huddle in the library and hermione will carry a book light and read because she doesn't like magic anymore, doesn't want to be a part of magic anymore, and kingsley will sigh and gaze out the window as ron plays with ginny's hair to keep her entertained.
some nights, hermione studies and ron braids and kingsley cries from behind the window because it's a full moon.
iii.
the loudest voices we hear ask the questions we can't answer.
"why'd you let us die?"
"was it really necessary?"
"were you even thinking about someone else?"
it might be guilt, or child schooling, or too many voice-overs during the final battle, but while the questions don't, the voices seem real.
iv.
one day, she gave up. he gave up.
hermione doesn't read anymore, and ron never toys with ginny's locks.
after having enough of disappearing bricks on the outside of a muggle building, hermione set off to rediscover her world before hogwarts.
she snapped her wand today.
ron bundled up his sister, his half-of-a-twin brother, his courage and his strength and set off for god knows where without even telling his parents.
as for the rest of us, well, we stay here.
so do the voices, and kingsley's tears once a month.
we'll never be free.
i open
..........|harry potter; snape/lily; pg; the resurrection stone.
I open at the close.
He closed his eyes tight and exhaled deep. His breath came out thick and creamy, like a man flushing all feeling out of his very being.
To confiscate, he'd told the boy. And now the snitch was his.
Dumbledore wouldn't tell him where he hid it; wouldn't tell him how to find the stone, because he knew Snape would try to use it. But look at this, you old nutter; I found it.
Inside the snitch. The small rock was just beneath the golden snitch, but trying to pry it out was going to be something else. If he slipped and accidentally hit the stone, then...
No. He would have to make the snitch open itself. I open at the close... the close of what?
Knock, knock, knock.
Snape concealed the stone in his robe pocket and strided to the door of his office. Lucius coolly greeted him on the other side, muttering, "The Dark Lord requests your presence."
And Snape knew exactly where to find him, and what he was going to do.
Smiling, he bid Lucius goodbye and made his way down to the lake. Halfway down and out of eyesight, he placed the snitch in his hand.
"I am ready to die."
The snitch slipped open and the stone appeared, and Snape looked at it as if it was his one-way ticket to heaven.
Closing his eyes, he pressed the stone to his heart. He blinked and inhaled and right before him, right before him, was Lily, his lost Lily, and all of her beauty.
"Lily..." He smiled, laughed for a second because she was here--she was really here!--and he hadn't seen her for sixteen excruciatingly long and lonely years and now she was here.
He launched himself at her with arms wide open, ready to get one of those unique Lily hugs that he'd been needing for so long when he went. Right. Through her.'
"Oh Sev..." she said, turning around, her face twisted in a mask of regret and pity.
He stiffened up and told himself he couldn't show pain, not now, not here. She pursed her lips and he exhaled.
"Lily, I am so sorry. Everything, I--"
"No. I'm sorry. I was a prat, Sev, and I never should have turned you away like I did." He teared up, and wished he could take her and hold her because for longer than appropriate, words failed him.
"There's something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you much, much sooner. Lily, I..." He paused, and she took a breath. "I love you, Lily."
She closed her eyes. "I love you too, Severus. We were meant to... saying all this is just going to make it harder, Sev. Just know, okay?" He repressed a tremor of sobs knew the end was near.
"I should go, now. Stay close to me?"
She nodded, and reached out to him despite their different worlds. "Always."
He took a step towards the boat house. I am ready to die.
because i could not stop for death
..........|harry potter; snape/lily; pg; i should have quit but instead i took care of you you made me sleep all uneven and i didn't believe them.
this is something he never said out loud:
it was love at first sight, the day he saw her. even from behind the tree an behind the rows and rows of surpressed hatered he had in his heart (did he even know how to love?) he could see her sparking green eyes.
this namesless girl, she had magic. she could do magic, radiate magic, breathe magic and she didn't even know it.
he gathered up all the courage he had (what courage?) and displayed himself for the first time.
she accepted him (and his nearly-broken little heart).
he always felt like that nearly would only grow into something more severe.
of puzzle pieces and flower petals
..........|harry potter; george/angelina; pg; strange how we fit each other.
She sees him after the battle, battered and broken and for a second she feels like she shouldn't say anything, shouldn't be the one to comfort him, when their entire history was a couple quidditch matches and maybe a dance or two at a ball in some other life.
But nonetheless Angelina leaves her Gryffindor girls (women) sobbing into the sleeves of Ravenclaw boys (men) and pads, slowly, slowly, over to George.
He's sitting alone, face in his hands because his cheeks are (probably) pink from tears and not their usual laughter. She picks a hole in her robes and imagines it to be the petals on a flower. She exhales as she watches the petals drop.
Standing maybe five feet (three feet) away, Angelina thumps the beat of a Muggle song onto her hip and accios some of that fabled Gryffindor courage people just began to realize existed in nearly every House.
Thu-u-ump-ump-ump-ump, thu-u-ump-ump-ump-ump, thu-u-u-u-u-ump, thu-u-u-u-u-u-ump...
She finishes her air, and walks the five feet (three feet) to George, delicately dropping beside him like the petals from her hallucinated flower.
"I had a twin, too," she says, and threads her finger in and out of the hole in her robes (in and out of the stem of the flower). "She was hit by a car when I was six. We don't speak of it much, but... I thought you should know."
He lifts his head up, and she takes his hand and squeezes before standing up to leave.
She left her flower behind.
the rest of her life
..........|harry potter; neville/luna; pg; in the aftermath of the war.
He found her, after all.
They didn't have much time to talk, so after he'd said those dawning words he vanished, and she had a new reason to fight.
When everything was over and he had been vanquished and Harry had won and life was beautiful again (even if it didn't appear like that) he kissed her, and she'd never felt better in her life.
After, though, she felt grave and embarrassed, that she was here smiling when so many were dead. She looked at the Weasleys and knew they'd never be the same without Fred; glanced across at Minerva and her heavy heart.
He took her hand, his other holding the Sword of Gryffindor, and together they sat on the steps, amongst the rubble of the building and the rubble of everyone's hearts.
"They were brave, you know. Everyone who died."
He looks down at her and kisses her forehead, pulling her head to rest on his chest. "More like everyone who fought. But it's over now, right? We've won. We lost some great men, but they'll never be gone, not really."
She sighs into him and knows he's right. A swelling feeling overtakes her, and all of a sudden she thinks she can fly, thinks she can create joy with her very being and conquer anything that forbids her to do so. She thinks she could spend the rest of her life here, with Neville, silently mourning the dead and triumphing in the living.
"I can't wait to get home," she says, and hopes (eventually) he'll ask if he can come, too.
three wishes
..........|harry potter; malfoy family; pg; oh i'm a guilty one / and know what i have done / yeah, i'm a troubled one / and i won't be forgiven.
lucius;
you watch them walk away hand-in-hand, thinking about how it could be a picture perfect portrait with you on the other side. you wish you had the heart to grab narcissa's hand, rub it with your thumb and tell her it's alright.
silently, you wonder if odysseus had it any better.
(you wonder if aeneas had it any better. you wonder why you can't be him, instead of yourself.)
heroes are overrated, you decide. books make them out to be great men whose flaws and failures only add to their successes. well you know damn straight that's not true in real life.
you think maybe, this life is some form of hell, and to get to heaven you must first win the war set out for you here.
if that's true, then one thing's for sure: you are never making it to see the pearly gates.
.
narcissa;
you watch them walk away, talking about something the dark lord (because that's what you call him now; not he-who-must-not-be-named, not voldemort) said earlier about a task he needs draco to fufill.
frankly, you've never been more scared in your life.
you wish you could go back in time, to the days where you made airplane noises to a boy with white-blonde hair, smiled a little more and still knew how to love. you wish you could go back to when lucius would whisper "you and me: forever" in your ear whenever he thought about it.
(you wish a lot of things, nowadays, but there aren't enough dandelions, eyelashes, or shooting stars in the world to make any of them come true. not even magic can change the course of time.
you think magic is useless, then. all of a sudden, you wish you weren't a wizard anymore, and add it to the list.)
.
draco;
you watch them walk away to somewhere behind closed doors in more ways than one. as soon as they arrived home the news was shared, voldemort vanquished! headlining all wizarding papers.
so harry did it, all right. he always knew he would.
something's missing, though: you wish you'd said something, after he saved your life. it might have been the first time, but you know you'll probably never get the chance to thank him.
you wish you had someone to share it with, this burden. it's not easy being the only child and having so much to carry.
maybe some day, when the scars tissue over and the pain subsides, you'll have a family of your own and make all the choices you wish your parents had made.
your mother and father emerge from the room and you notice she's been crying. lucius gives a curt nod and leaves, and as you hug your mum it's like you're eight years old again, swearing she's the most beautiful lady in the whole world.
you think (you know) she still is.
the fighter
..........|harry potter; minerva; pg; out of my control.
she never wanted any of this to happen.
when she and albus used to converse, he never said much, but he always made sure to say enough because he knew this day was coming. he kenw she'd be alone and broken, trying to piece everything together as well as she thought.
but she couldn't help it, help him. there was no way she could predict the dark lord or his actions and even though harry knew him better than anyone else did (knew him better than he did) he couldn't be the one to take charge.
she was going to end this thing. she might not be able to open at the close, but she sure can throw a punch.
dust is all that's left of us
..........|harry potter; the order of the phoenix; pg; prompt here.
i.
the dead. they haunt us.
everyday, we go about cleaning and (almost) smiling, picking up and (almost) drifting off.
but they'll never let us forget.
ii.
it's fall before we can feel again, before we can think again, before we can even hope to hope again.
grimmauld place isn't like it was before, dusty and abandoned after 11 at night when everyone either went to bed or had the sense to stay in their rooms.
now, we never sleep, because everytime we blink faces of those past flash like a camera about to overexpose.
we'll all huddle in the library and hermione will carry a book light and read because she doesn't like magic anymore, doesn't want to be a part of magic anymore, and kingsley will sigh and gaze out the window as ron plays with ginny's hair to keep her entertained.
some nights, hermione studies and ron braids and kingsley cries from behind the window because it's a full moon.
iii.
the loudest voices we hear ask the questions we can't answer.
"why'd you let us die?"
"was it really necessary?"
"were you even thinking about someone else?"
it might be guilt, or child schooling, or too many voice-overs during the final battle, but while the questions don't, the voices seem real.
iv.
one day, she gave up. he gave up.
hermione doesn't read anymore, and ron never toys with ginny's locks.
after having enough of disappearing bricks on the outside of a muggle building, hermione set off to rediscover her world before hogwarts.
she snapped her wand today.
ron bundled up his sister, his half-of-a-twin brother, his courage and his strength and set off for god knows where without even telling his parents.
as for the rest of us, well, we stay here.
so do the voices, and kingsley's tears once a month.
we'll never be free.
i open
..........|harry potter; snape/lily; pg; the resurrection stone.
I open at the close.
He closed his eyes tight and exhaled deep. His breath came out thick and creamy, like a man flushing all feeling out of his very being.
To confiscate, he'd told the boy. And now the snitch was his.
Dumbledore wouldn't tell him where he hid it; wouldn't tell him how to find the stone, because he knew Snape would try to use it. But look at this, you old nutter; I found it.
Inside the snitch. The small rock was just beneath the golden snitch, but trying to pry it out was going to be something else. If he slipped and accidentally hit the stone, then...
No. He would have to make the snitch open itself. I open at the close... the close of what?
Knock, knock, knock.
Snape concealed the stone in his robe pocket and strided to the door of his office. Lucius coolly greeted him on the other side, muttering, "The Dark Lord requests your presence."
And Snape knew exactly where to find him, and what he was going to do.
Smiling, he bid Lucius goodbye and made his way down to the lake. Halfway down and out of eyesight, he placed the snitch in his hand.
"I am ready to die."
The snitch slipped open and the stone appeared, and Snape looked at it as if it was his one-way ticket to heaven.
Closing his eyes, he pressed the stone to his heart. He blinked and inhaled and right before him, right before him, was Lily, his lost Lily, and all of her beauty.
"Lily..." He smiled, laughed for a second because she was here--she was really here!--and he hadn't seen her for sixteen excruciatingly long and lonely years and now she was here.
He launched himself at her with arms wide open, ready to get one of those unique Lily hugs that he'd been needing for so long when he went. Right. Through her.'
"Oh Sev..." she said, turning around, her face twisted in a mask of regret and pity.
He stiffened up and told himself he couldn't show pain, not now, not here. She pursed her lips and he exhaled.
"Lily, I am so sorry. Everything, I--"
"No. I'm sorry. I was a prat, Sev, and I never should have turned you away like I did." He teared up, and wished he could take her and hold her because for longer than appropriate, words failed him.
"There's something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you much, much sooner. Lily, I..." He paused, and she took a breath. "I love you, Lily."
She closed her eyes. "I love you too, Severus. We were meant to... saying all this is just going to make it harder, Sev. Just know, okay?" He repressed a tremor of sobs knew the end was near.
"I should go, now. Stay close to me?"
She nodded, and reached out to him despite their different worlds. "Always."
He took a step towards the boat house. I am ready to die.
because i could not stop for death
..........|harry potter; snape/lily; pg; i should have quit but instead i took care of you you made me sleep all uneven and i didn't believe them.
this is something he never said out loud:
it was love at first sight, the day he saw her. even from behind the tree an behind the rows and rows of surpressed hatered he had in his heart (did he even know how to love?) he could see her sparking green eyes.
this namesless girl, she had magic. she could do magic, radiate magic, breathe magic and she didn't even know it.
he gathered up all the courage he had (what courage?) and displayed himself for the first time.
she accepted him (and his nearly-broken little heart).
he always felt like that nearly would only grow into something more severe.